Broken
by pikapikatchu
Summary: Nick just wants Greg to be happy, but he questions whether getting into a relationship is the right way to achieve it.
1. Chapter 1

**Hey guys!**

**I'm back with a brand-new story! It's a little different from what I normally write I guess, it's fun to try something new!**

**Hope you enjoy it!**

**Big Love,**

**pikapikatchu**

* * *

"She's amazing! I can't wait for you to meet her!" Greg was excitedly telling Nick about his date last night. He had met a woman two weeks ago at the police department's christmas party and had hit it off with her instantly. She was a funny, intelligent woman three years older than him and new on the force. She transferred from Reno to Vegas two months ago.

Nick smiled as he tied his shoes in the locker room. "I think I have. Short brunette?"

Greg shook his head. "Tall redhead. She's mostly working the day shift, sometimes swing shift."

"No nights?"

"Sometimes. Sara worked with her a few times." Greg closed his locker.

"Well, I can't wait to meet her, either," Nick said with a wary smile on his face. After Greg had a few miserably failed attempts at dating, Nick was very protective of his friend when it came to women. His heart seemed to have been broken beyond repair quite a few times, but he recovered every time. Still, each time left some marks behind that made every new attempt more difficult than the previous one. And now that Greg was extremely euphoric about this woman, Nick feared that once it was over with her, his friend would be devastated.

"I think you're gonna like her!" Greg patted Nick on the back as the two were walking outside the locker room. And there she was, Gretchen Roth, standing in the lobby as she was talking to her colleague, officer Spencer.

Greg walked closer, with a big, cute smile on his face, ready to approach her.

But as Spencer leaned in for a kiss and Gretchen kissed him back while putting her hand on his cheek, he stopped.

"...What?" Greg looked confused. "What's going on?"

Nick stared at the confusing scenery. "Come on, let's get out of here before she sees us..."

As the two turned around to walk away, Gretchen walked over and tipped Greg's shoulder. "Hey there," she said with a smile on her face. "I didn't know you were working tonight."

"Y-yes, I, uh... I do, I..." Greg stammered nervously.

"So you're Gretchen," Nick interrupted Greg to help him out. "I'm Nick Stokes."

"Nice to meet you." They shook hands. "I've heard a lot about you." She smiled as she looked over to Greg. "...Are you alright?"

Greg nodded. "Sure."

Awkward silence followed before Nick chimed in again. "Well, we have to get going now. It was nice to meet you, Gretchen." They quickly walked off.

* * *

"Do you think she saw us?" Greg asked nervously as him and Nick were driving out to the desert for their case.

"If she did, she's a great actress. She didn't look nervous or anything." Nick was contemplating suggesting something that might hurt Greg. He decided to go ahead, anyway. "Say, Greg... Is it possible you were misreading her signs?"

"What? No way! We had a romantic dinner with lots of physical contact. We kissed. Friends don't kiss, Nick."

"...So what does that make Spencer and her, then?"

"...I don't know. I don't get it. We had a great time. She even asked me out for our next date, she seemed to like me." In the last two weeks they had four dates. Quite a high number, considering their time demanding jobs. "What happened?"

Nick shook his head with a smile. "Nothing happened. Maybe she's just... looking around, you know?"

"But Spencer?!" Greg replied rather outraged. "Him?"

Nick couldn't help but chuckle. He had thought the exact same thing. "Just ask her about it, maybe there's an explanation."

"Like what?"

He shrugged as he pulled the car over to the crime scene. As they got out of the car, they were greeted by Spencer and Gretchen.

"Hey guys!" Spencer waved at them.

"...Great. That's exactly what I needed, being stuck out in the desert for hours with them." Greg rolled his eyes as he walked towards them.

* * *

Working that crime scene was straining Greg as he was trying to avoid Gretchen the whole time, while she seemed to be wanting to be close to him. "God dammit!" Greg walked into the evidence room with a frustrated look on his face as he put his phone in his pocket.

"What's wrong?" Nick asked worried.

"I just talked to Brass. Officer Bailey broke a hip in a motorcycle accident."

Nick raised his eyebrows. "That's horrible, but... Why does this annoy you so much?"

"Because it means Gretchen will work his nightshifts! She'll be around me all the time!"

Nick sighed. "That wouldn't be a problem if you just talked to her. Tell her you don't want to date her when she's dating other people."

"...But I wanna date her! What if she decides to keep dating other people and stops dating me?"

"Well then so be it. You can't keep dating her then, that wouldn't make you happy."

Greg shrugged as he put on gloves to help Nick work on a piece of evidence. "I don't know, it could work out, couldn't it?"

Nick gave him a look. "Maybe if it was any other guy but Spencer. You know him, after all. Either way, you should talk to her."

* * *

Later that night, Greg was drinking a cup of coffee in the empty break room when Nick walked in to join him. "I was on the phone with our victim's boss for almost an hour. He was very reluctant to help us, I wonder why that is..." Nick grabbed a coffee and sat down opposite Greg. "What's wrong?"

Greg had a thoughtful, sad look on his face as he shrugged. "I can't get Gretchen out of my head. I felt so confident, you know? She seemed so understanding when I told her I wanted to take things slow, maybe that's why she's not interested."

Nick sighed. He had hoped the fact that Gretchen had kissed Spencer would make Greg lose interest in her. Getting romantically involved with someone at work was never a good idea, especially with a complicated backstory like Greg's. Ever since the Neil Novak ordeal he had anxiety when it came to physical contact. He didn't want to see his friend get crushed, but that was exactly what was happening right now. "Look, we don't know she's lost interest. I know you're worried she'll turn you down, but at least you'll have an answer."

"Yeah sure but... there's nothing wrong with stalling a bit first, right?" Much to Greg's surprise, Gretchen walked in as he finished his sentence. "...Hey Gretchen."

"Hi." She smiled at both men. "Greg, do you have a minute?"

Nick hopped off his seat. "I gotta go back to work."

Gretchen watched him leave, then sat down opposite Greg. "You were avoiding me at the scene, weren't you?"

"...What makes you think that? No, I..." He sighed and paused for a moment. "...I saw you kiss Spencer, alright? I didn't know how to deal with that other than to avoid you... I'm sorry."

"No, **I'm** sorry. I should've told you about it." She put her hand on Greg's. "A week before I met you I started dating Spencer. We went out a few times, that's it."

Greg frowned. "But you kissed him. Today."

"It was kind of like a kiss goodbye. We agreed we didn't click and decided to stay friends. It didn't mean anything and Spencer knows that."

"...Oh." Greg looked a bit sheepishly at her. "And... Spencer knows about us?"

"Yeah, of course."

Greg smiled relieved as Gretchen gently stroked his hand.

"So next Saturday, is it still a date?"

"Sure," he replied happy.


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey guys! I'm glad the first chapter got you interested! :)**

**Let's see how chapter 2 does! Enjoy!**

* * *

In the next two weeks, Greg noticed that Gretchen – despite agreeing to take things slow – was getting impatient about their physical relationship. "I don't know if I should tell her..." Greg said while sitting down on Nick's couch.

"You can't avoid her forever." Greg was supposed to meet Gretchen today but told her something important came up and went over to Nick's instead. "Being honest is always the best call."

"Yeah, like that worked out great the other... What was it, seven times?" Greg was referencing the seven failed attempts at dating that all took an ugly turn when he told them about Neil Novak.

Nick sighed. "I know it's not easy, but Gretchen is different. She's a cop, she might understand." Nick was a little torn about the whole subject. On one side, he was proud Greg was trying again. It took him many months until he started dating after the Novak ordeal. But on the other hand, he wasn't sure his friend was ready yet. "Maybe you just need some more time, you know?"

"How much more time am I suppose to need? It's been almost two years, Nick!" In fact, it was exactly two years the next day.

"There's no right way to deal with something like that. Some people need more time than others, there's nothing wrong with that."

"But it gets frustrating!" Greg exclaimed desperately.

"Remember what Dr. Reyes told you?"

"...What do you mean?"

"That you need patience. You can't expect anybody else to be patient about this if you're not patient yourself. And she said it's important to tell the woman you're with about it, or else you'll have two things to worry about, remember?"

Greg sighed. "Yeah, I know. I want her to know. Telling her isn't even a big deal. I had enough chances to practice that, but I'm scared she'll react like all the others."

"But you're already acting like she gave you a bad reaction. Why not make it official, then?" Nick smiled.

* * *

Greg was determined to tell Gretchen about the Novak case today. "Hey Gretchen. Sorry I had to cancel our date yesterday," he said as the two sat down in the break room. Greg had asked her to meet him there.

"No problem, it didn't really surprise me. I didn't expect to see you today, either," she replied smiling.

"...What do you mean?"

"Well, you know... Because of the anniversary."

"What anniversary?"

"It's January 30th."

Greg frowned. "So?"

Gretchen couldn't help but chuckle. "Well I guess that's a good sign. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have brought it up. So do you want to grab dinner tomorrow?"

"Wait, what anniversary..." It finally dawned on him. "...You know?"

"I'm really sorry, Greg. Spencer told me. ...And your trace guy... Hodgkins? It slipped Spencer earlier."

"...You know about Novak?!"

"Well, the gist. Don't worry, Spencer didn't give any details and I didn't look it up anywhere. I don't want to know if you don't want to tell me." Again, she smiled at him.

"...Really?" he asked surprised. All the other women he told started asking questions he wasn't comfortable answering.

"Of course," she replied a bit confused. It was natural for her to react that way, she didn't think anyone could be insensitive about this. "I want you to enjoy spending time with me, not feel interrogated when we're together."

Greg was speechless. He didn't expect this at all.

"...Are you alright? I didn't mean to burst it out like that, but it felt wrong knowing without you knowing... that I knew. You know."

Greg finally smiled. "No, I'm, great. I wanted to tell you but was scared how you might react."

She took his hand. "Well, now you know."

* * *

After Gretchen's positive reaction to the Novak case, Greg had hoped that it would take off some of the pressure. He quickly had to realize that this wasn't the case, and despite Gretchen's understanding, she was ignorant to how this affected his love life. "We had our first fight yesterday." Greg sighed as he walked into the break room, where Nick and Hodges were talking to each other.

"...I should probably leave you two alone." Hodges tried to hurry outside the room, but Greg stopped him by grabbing his arm.

"Not so fast. You're so invested in my life, I'm sure you don't want to miss this. Why did you tell her about Novak?"

"...Why? It turned out helping you, didn't it? She walked in on me and Henry talking about your mood the other day and wondering if it had anyting to do with the anniversary, so she asked us about it."

"It did help at first! But now I'm not so sure anymore."

"Well, what happened?" Nick asked as he put his newspaper down.

Greg sat down. "Well, she says she understands that this is still affecting me, but she thought it didn't mean I..." He paused to look at Hodges, still standing between the desk and the door. "You know what? You don't need to hear this, get lost." The tech did as he rolled his eyes. Greg continued once he was gone. "She didn't put it like this, but she said she couldn't wait forever to get intimate."

Nick raised his eyebrows. "What? She was fine with it when she found out."

"I don't think she realized what this meant for her. I don't want to wait forever, either, but I can't just... I need time."

Nick nodded understanding. "Did you tell her that?"

"I tried to, but you know I have a short fuse when it comes to that topic. So we ended up yelling at eachother."

Nick chuckled. "Well, you need to try again."

"I know." He sighed. "Why isn't there an easy fix for these problems?"

* * *

"Hey man, I'm really sorry," Spencer said as he patted Greg's back comforting at a crime scene.

"What do you mean?" Greg asked confused as he shared a puzzled look with Nick.

"Gretchen. I mean, I knew it was only a matter of time and you lasted longer than I did, but..."

"...What the hell are you talking about, man?" Nick asked annoyed.

"...You don't know yet, Greg?" When Greg frowned, Spencer went on, "Well then... Never mind!" He turned around, but Nick grabbed him to keep him from walking off.

"What's going on?"

Spencer gave Nick a look. "Gretchen was on a date with Gomez last night." He pointed at officer Gomez behind him.

"...A date?"

"Yeah and as far as I heard, it got pretty hot, too." Spencer saw Greg's disappointed look and realized he shouldn't have shared that last piece of information with him. "...I'm sorry. I thought she broke it off with you already."

"...She didn't." Greg sighed as he picked up his kit he had put down on the floor earlier and walked towards the crime scene.

Nick followed him. "..Are you okay?"

"Sure." Greg crouched down to the dead body lying in the hotel lobby they were at. He looked up to Nick to give him a sad, fake smile. "It just wasn't meant to be."


	3. Chapter 3

**Here we go again!**

**Thanks and welcome to the new followers!**

* * *

What Nick had feared when Greg started dating Gretchen had happened – his friend's heart got broken. And it showed as he wandered around the lab the next few days looking quite depressed, assuring Nick he was alright without even trying to sound too convincing.

Four days had passed since Spencer broke the news to him. Nick was just walking out of the interrogation room with quite a confident look on his face as his suspect quickly confessed.

"Hey Nick," Gretchen said as she walked up to him. "Is Greg alright? He didn't take any of my calls."

Nick raised an eyebrow. "What do you want from him?"

"...Wow, where's the hostility coming from? Did I do something wrong?"

"Screwing Gomez sure wasn't the right thing to do," Nick replied quite cocky.

"...What are you talking about?!" she asked shocked.

"Spencer couldn't keep his mouth shut, he never can. But you could've told Greg before you went ahead and did it, don't you think?"

"Nick, I didn't sleep with Gomez!"

Nick rolled his eyes. "You know what, it's none of my business, this is between you and Greg. But he's crushed because you didn't even care enough about him to tell him it's over."

"...It's not over! I was Gomez' plus one at a wedding because his girlfriend broke up with him a week before and he didn't want to show up alone! I didn't have sex with him! Who says I did?!"

Nick looked embarrassed. "I-I don't know, Spencer said you..."

"That jerk!" she exclaimed angrily as she stormed off.

* * *

After Gretchen explained to Greg that nothing had happened between her and her colleague Gomez, they had a long talk about what they were expecting from this relationship. Greg tried again to explain the difficulties they would encounter along the way and Gretchen – again – seemed to be understanding. But her actions were speaking a different language.

After a great date this Friday night, they started to make out a little in her living room. While they did, she kept placing Greg's hand on her breast, but he kept pulling it back. The fifth time she did it, she grabbed onto his hand so that he couldn't pull back as easily. "...No, stop it," Greg said as he gently pushed her away from him.

"Come on, we're just enjoying ourselves a little, nothing wrong with that... It's alright." She smiled at him as she went in closer again, still a firm grip around his hand.

"Yeah but..." He tried to pull back again as she buried her nails quite violently into his hand. "Gretchen, you're hurting me. Stop it." He pushed her back a little less gently, causing her to finally let go.

"What's wrong now?!"

"I'm sorry." He got off of her couch. "I-I should go."

"No! Come back here so we can talk about this. What's the problem? I just want to move things along!"

"And I told you I needed time! You were okay with taking things slow, where is this coming from now?"

"Yeah, I agreed to take it slow, not stop at a point not even prude virgins stop at!"

Greg put a hurt look on after that last comment, causing her to apologize.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean it like that." She got off her seat to walk over to him and take him by the hand, leading him back on the couch. "I just don't want things to go stale, you know? If we remain in this friend-like state I'm afraid either one of us could lose romantic interest."

Greg knew that this was her way of telling him **she** was starting to lose interest. "I don't want that to happen."

"Me neither. That's why I was trying to push things a little further without making you feel like you weren't in control of the situation."

Greg frowned. "You wouldn't let go of my hand."

"What do you want me to do, then?!" She was getting frustrated. "How much time do you think you'll need?"

"I-I don't know, but pushing me doesn't help at all!"

"Well how much time did you need with the last girl?"

"...The last girl?"

"Yeah. You told me you've been with a few women since... Novak. How long did it take you to be intimate with them?"

Greg looked a bit desperate. He thought he had made it clear that hardly anything had happened between him and those women. "Well..."

"When was the first one? I mean, how long after Novak?"

Greg sighed. He remembered Gretchen claiming not wanting to ask any questions but now it did feel like he was being interrogated. "Well, I think about a year..."

"A year?" she asked a bit surprised.

He nodded. "I-I just had other things... on my mind..." And there it was again, the feeling of needing to defend his traumatized soul.

"So how long before you two had sex?"

"...We dated for three months and..."

"Three months?!" she exclaimed shocked. Her and Greg were dating for a little bit over a month.

"...Gretchen, we never even kissed."

The shock in her face turned into disbelief. "What?"

"...What do you want me to say? I was repeatedly..." He stopped himself. To this day he couldn't bring himself to actually verbalize what had happened to him. "I wasn't in a good place that time. And she dumped me, causing me to feel pressured with the next one. I met her a week after and we kissed within a week, I think."

"...And?"

"...And she dumped me two weeks later because that's all that had happened."

"...One kiss?"

Greg nodded. "Three others I dated for two weeks... We only kissed once or twice. And the last two... We made out a few times, but not as often as you and I did."

Sadness replaced the shock in her face. "It took you a year to date a woman... Months to kiss and make out. It took you almost a year to go from dating to making out?"

Greg shamefully looked away from Gretchen. "I'm sorry. I don't know when I'm gonna be ready, but it frustrates me as much as it does you."

Gretchen gave Greg a hopeful smile as she gently put her hand on his. "I'm sorry I made you feel uncomfortable. I like you and want to be with you. But we need to move things along. On your terms, but we can't stagnate. We'll both regret it."

* * *

The depressed look Greg had been sporting when he thought Gretchen had ended the relationship was back again.

"Greg, you'll have to drive over there. It's a long drive, so you better leave early." Russell handed Greg a piece of paper with the information for his new case. "Sara's already there but she needs another hand."

"Alright," he replied low spirited as he turned around.

Nick grabbed the piece of paper Russell was handing him and hurried to catch up with Greg, who was already walking towards the locker room. "Hey, what's wrong? You look sad. Didn't your date with Gretchen go well?"

Greg shook his head as he entered the locker room. "She started asking questions. It always gets downhill when they start asking questions."

"What kind of questions?"

Greg opened his locker, but instead of getting his stuff out, he stuck his head inside and leaned it against the wall. "She asked how long she'll have to wait."

Nick sighed. "Did she break up?"

"No..." Greg slammed his hand against the locker next to his as he put his head out again. "I hate this. There's no way we'll work out, why do I even bother trying anymore?"

"What happened?" Nick sat down on the bench in the room.

Greg sighed as he sat next him to fill him in on last night's events. "The worst thing about it is that she's right, you know?"

"Well she could've executed it better, don't you think?"

"Yeah, but I understand her frustration."

"...So what's going to happen next?"

"I don't know... I like her but that's not really important when she tries to push me like that... is it?"

Nick put his hand on Greg's shoulder to comfort him. "You got to figure out what you might regret more. Losing her or letting her push you."

* * *

"He said he found her like that when he came home. He said she had threatened to kill herself a few times, but he never thought she'd go through with it," Gretchen explained to Nick at a crime scene while he was taking pictures of the body. "We know this guy, Nick. She had called us a few times, we booked him for domestic violence twice, but she never went through with it, always claimed she had been lying. Any sign of foul play?"

Nick shook his head. "Too early to tell." A pause followed, then he decided to bring up Greg's problem. "He's not ready, you know?"

"...Excuse me?"

"Greg. If you keep on pushing him you'll lose him."

Gretchen raised her eyebrows. "He said I pushed him?"

Nick turned his head to look at her. "I know you think it's none of my business, but I'm his friend. I've seen him at his worst and I'll do whatever I need to do to prevent that from happening again."

"...Yeah?"

He took another picture of the body. "It crushed him every time a woman left him for who he is."

"...What do you mean, who he is?"

"They didn't leave him just because he wasn't able to get intimate with them, Gretchen. They left him because he's broken."

Gretchen shook her head disbelieving. "I know what happened was horrible, but..."

"No, you don't. He's broken. He's not who he was two years ago. He's traumatized and is only making slow progress with his psychiatrist."

Gretchen looked a bit shocked. She didn't even know he was seeing a psychiatrist. "...Psychiatrist?"

He nodded. "She specializes in victims of sexual violence, she's the best in her field. And still it took him months to be comfortable with me hugging him. I'm his best friend, Gretchen, and he wouldn't even want to sit too close to me."

Gretchen got teary-eyed. It was all a bit much to hear at once. "H-He never told me."

"Don't expect him to. He used to be very open about his feelings, but that changed, too. It's not always easy when he's in a mood and you don't know why. If it's something you did or not." Nick looked at Gretchen to see her face impression. It was pretty much what he expected, but he felt like she needed to know what she was getting into with Greg. "Don't get me wrong. He's a great guy and most of the time he can hide it well. But it's gonna come out every now and then and you should be prepared."

"...Why are you... Are you trying to sabotage our relationship?"

Nick gave her a smile. "On the contrary. He wants you to know all this, but he can't tell you."

"...Did you do this before? Talk to his girlfriends about this... is that why they all left him?"

He shook his head. "I'm not trying to scare you off. I did tell some of them this, but only after they broke up with him. Two even felt bad and wanted to try again, but that didn't do any good. That's why I'm telling you now. You're close to ending the relationship before it even started by expecting things from him he's not comfortable with yet." Nick walked out of the bathroom and into the bedroom, Gretchen followed.

"...All I want is for the relationship to progress."

"Exactly." He started taking pictures of the bedroom. "You're expecting big steps while he's not even ready for baby steps. You need to realize this or else you'll hurt him."

"I don't want to hurt him, Nick. I like him, but..."

"Just think about what I just told you. By dating him you're taking on a big responsibility. He's not like every other guy. You have to be sensitive and careful around him. If you're not willing to adjust to that he's better off without you."


	4. Chapter 4

**Thanks SO much for the kind reviews! I'm very happy you're enjoying this story!**

* * *

Three days later, Nick and Greg were working on a new case together. They met after their lunch breaks in the break room before keeping up the work on that case. "Hey Greg. How was lunch with Gretchen?" Nick asked with a smile on his face as he walked in.

Greg sat at the table, looking at Nick with an angry look on his face. Nick went on to talk about his own lunch break until Greg interrupted him. "So you think I'm broken," he said while looking at his friend.

Nick was about to walk towards the coffee machine, but stopped. "...What?"

"Why would you say that?! To Gretchen?!"

"...Let me explain."

"I thought you liked her!"

"I do, but..."

"Then why are you trying to scare her off?!"

"I'm not. I told her that's not what I want. But I just... Forget it, I'm sorry. I won't do it again."

"...No, what did you want to say?"

Nick sighed as he sat down opposite Greg. "I just can't watch you get hurt again. Gretchen's not right for you. At least not now. She doesn't understand what she's getting herself into."

Greg looked at Nick with an awfully hurt face impression. "Wow. That's how you think about this? I'm too much to handle, right?"

"No, but I don't think Gretchen is the one to be able to... handle it, is all I'm saying."

"Yeah well, I think you're wrong about her."

"I hope I am." Nick gave him a soft smile. "But she's already making you uncomfortable and she doesn't seem to be willing to meet your needs."

Greg wasn't sure how to respond to that, Nick wasn't wrong with his assumptions. "...She told me she's willing to adjust."

"Just forget I said something. I really don't want you two to break up, I don't want to see you get hurt." Nick got off his seat. "We should get back to work now."

As Nick turned around to walk into the evidence room, Greg remained seated for a few more minutes, thinking about what Nick just said.

* * *

"Did you and Nick work things out?" Gretchen asked as she sat down next to Greg on her couch.

"Kind of, I guess..." Greg shrugged.

"I hope you're not mad at me for telling you what he said."

"No, of course not..."

"And it's not true, right?" she asked as she started kissing him.

"No... Well, maybe a little, I don't know..."

"Come on, there's a difference between beeing a little bent and being broken, don't you think? You have some difficulties trusting people, that's all..."

"...I-I guess..." Greg found it hard to disagree with Nick. There have been times when he felt like he was broken, other times he didn't. But deep inside he knew that Nick was right. But he didn't want to be. As the two were starting to make out, Greg decided it was time to move things along a little, to prove Nick wrong. Starting to unbutton Gretchen's shirt, his hands began to shake. Gretchen noticed, so she decide to help him in her own ways. She took her shirt off herself and tried to take his off, too, but he wouldn't let her.

"...Come on Greg, it's fine."

"I-I know, I'm sorry..." Greg finally put his shirt off with shaky hands, all while the scenes of the Novak ordeal played back and forth in his mind. "...Maybe we should..."

Gretchen interrupted him as she playfully pushed him on the couch. "Just relax, okay?" As Greg was nearing a panic attack, he hastly tried to get back up, but Gretchen pushed him down one more time and kissed him. She stopped when she noticed that, instead of kissing her back, Greg was close to tears as he lay on the couch shaking. "Greg, what... what is it?"

"I-I'm sorry, I just... I can't. I need to go, please..."

Gretchen got off of him with an angry, hurtful and shameful look. "Don't forget your shirt."

Greg knew it was a horrible idea to just leave now, without any explanation or an apology, but he couldn't stand being in that room anymore. He had to leave.

* * *

Knocking at Nick's door that moment was hard for Greg, but he needed his friend right now.

Nick opened the door with a surprised look on his face. Greg looked like he'd just been through hell. "Greg, what... Are you alright?"

Greg stormed in with a distraught look on his face. "You were right. She just..." He stopped talking as he saw a woman dressed in a dressing gown walk into the living room. "...Hi."

"Hey," the woman said with a confused smile on her face.

Greg's eyes wandered between Nick and the woman. "...I'm so sorry. I didn't know... you had company." He turned around to leave again.

"No, no, no, Greg. Wait." Nick grabbed his arm to stop him.

"Yeah, stay. I wanted to take a shower, anyway." The woman smiled at Greg. "I'm Camille, by the way."

"...Hey, I'm Greg." They shook hands.

Camille gave Nick a kiss on the cheek before she walked into the bathroom.

"...I didn't mean to interrupt. I don't know why I came here, I shouldn't have..." Greg showed the despair he was feeling right now. Even if he wanted to, he couldn't hide it.

"Don't be silly. It's fine. What's wrong? I thought you had a date with Gretchen." Nick offered Greg a seat as he sat down himself, but the younger CSI prefered to stand. "So what is it I was right about?"

"About me... And Gretchen. I'm broken and she can't handle it." Greg filled Nick in on what had just happened. Telling him was almost as hard as living it, he was still shaking.

Nick listened carefully. "And now **you** feel bad?"

"Of course. I shouldn't have given her the wrong idea... I'm sure she hates me now."

"You don't see any faulty behavior on Gretchen's side?"

Greg shrugged. "I'm sure she thought it was alright..."

"No, the way you're telling it... I doubt she didn't notice anything wrong with you. She just chose to ignore it because she thought it was convenient that way. Look at you, you're shaking just talking about it."

Greg looked away ashamed. "Yeah but... We've been dating for weeks, I know she wants to... It's my fault. I lead her on and..."

"Greg, it's not okay. She shouldn't have pushed you. She should've realized and respected that you weren't ready." Nick put his hand on Greg's shoulder, but the young CSI quickly shook it off.

"You're probably right..." Greg gave Nick a sheepish, uncomfortable smile.

Nick would've loved to tell Greg to keep himself together, that he used to be okay with physical contact between the two and that one bad experience with Gretchen shouldn't change anything about it, but he knew that this wasn't something Greg could help. "You know, maybe you should call Dr. Reyes, tell her about this."

Greg nodded thoughtful. "Camille seems nice," he said, trying to both change the subject and keep his mind off it.

"Yeah, she's great." Nick smiled.

"How long have you two been dating?"

Nick sighed a little. "Almost three weeks."

Greg raised his eyebrows in surprise. "Why didn't you tell me?"

The look on Nick's face made it obvious he didn't tell Greg because he didn't want to brag about his relationship while Greg's was awfully complicated.

Greg responded with a sad smile. "Why can't I have that? Just casual, uncomplicated dating."

"You will. It just takes time."


	5. Chapter 5

**Hey guys! Sorry it took me so long to update! I hope this chapter was worth the wait! ;) Enjoy!**

* * *

Instead of doing the grown-up, reasonable thing and talk to Gretchen about what had happened, Greg decided to try and ignore it until the issue resolved itself. Deep inside he knew that wasn't going to happen. But telling himself it would was all the reassurance he needed right now.

The next day, him and Nick were called to a crime scene, a family home in Henderson. They were just done in the room the body was found in – the bathroom, but it wasn't where the young man was murdered. While Nick was processing the bedroom upstairs, Greg went downstairs into the living room. As he noticed some hints suggesting an armoir had been moved, with the wall behind it showing some blood spatter, he decided to try to move it away from the wall. He didn't succeed, it was way too heavy. "Officer," he yelled to officer Graham, who was the first at the scene, outside, "Could you give me a hand?"

Instead of Graham it was Gretchen who walked in. "Sure," she said as she looked at Greg. Her face impression was rather cold and hard to read.

The two went over to the armoir and moved it. As they did, Gretchen didn't look at Greg. Greg was glad she didn't because this way she couldn't notice his shaky hands.

"...Thanks," he murmured.

They both looked at each other awkwardly as Nick came down the stairs.

"Nothing upstairs. How about here? Any more luck?" Nick noticed Gretchen and the awkwardness but wasn't sure how to react, either.

Greg found it hard to concentrate on his work at the moment. "Uh..."

"Looks like we found the primary," Gretchen chimed in as she pointed at the blood-stained wall. She looked over to Greg in a weird manner before walking outside again.

The two CSIs watched her leave. "Did you two get a chance to talk about yesterday before shift?" Nick wondered.

Greg shook his head. "There's nothing to talk about."

"...Are you sure?" Nick looked down on Greg's still shaky hands. "Is this nervousness or... fear?"

Greg was visibly uncomfortable talking about this. "L-let's just get back to work..." Greg grabbed his camera to take pictures of the bloody wall.

* * *

Nick was sitting in the break room, waiting for Greg to walk back in. He had just walked into Russell's office to discuss their case. A few minutes later, Russell and Greg walked back into the break room. "So you should ask an officer to come with you," Russell said, walking over to the coffee machine.

"...I-I can do it on my own," Greg replied nervously, noticing Nick's judging look.

"Are you sure? I'd feel more comfortable knowing you're safe."

"Yeah but... I'll be fine." As Russell left the room, Greg sat down, trying to start a new subject to keep Nick from commenting on the issue. "Did Hodges tell you..."

Nick interrupted him. "What was that about?"

"...Nothing."

"Ask an officer to come with you... where?"

Greg shrugged. "To talk to the victim's friend."

Nick raised an eyebrow. "Why does Russell want you to take an officer with you?"

The younger CSI sighed. "Because he's just been released from jail."

"So before you end up having to go with Gretchen you'd rather face this criminal alone?"

"It's nothing like that, alright? I just don't think I need protection. He's not the first criminal I have to deal with. Besides, what's going to happen? I'll just ask him about his friend."

"We have no idea who did it at this point. It might've very well been this friend."

"Nick, stop it!" Greg said unnerved and unusually aggressively. "It's my choice, not yours!"

Instead of acting surprised and maybe backing down a bit, Nick got annoyed himself. "You can't let your work suffer because of your conflict with Gretchen, especially not when it's about your security. Work it out with her somehow."

Greg hastily shook his head. "I already told you, there's nothing to talk about and nothing to work out. We're not seeing each other anymore, end of story!"

"That's bullshit and you know it! You were quite obviously feeling uncomfortable with her in the room back at the crime scene and I watched you dodge her in the parking lot earlier. And it's normal, no one feels good about seeing their ex when they had a messy breakup."

Greg jumped off his seat. "Don't talk to me like I'm a child, like I never before experienced a break up! I **know** it's normal!" He walked out the room, leaving Nick a bit puzzled.

* * *

Both men were a bit annoyed by each other right now but neither one was willing to talk about that conflict, so they acted like everything was alright. They were much more distant with each other than usual, though. They had been working for two hours in the evidence room when Greg had to leave to see how far Robin was with their DNA samples. He came back almost an hour later. "She's not done yet," was all he said as he closed the door behind him.

Nick looked at his watch. "And it took you 45 minutes to find that out?" he asked a little hostile.

"...No." Greg sat down on a chair looking quite distraught, running his fingers through his hair.

"...What's wrong? Where were you?"

Greg sighed deeply. "I spent half an hour hiding in Russell's office."

Nick raised his eyebrows. "Hiding? From what?"

"...Gretchen. She was in the ballistics lab, I would've had to walk past her and I... couldn't."

Nick released a little sigh. "...Are you alright?"

"No," Greg said with a humorless chuckle under his breath. "You might think that the saddest part is me hiding, but no. I think she actually saw me. She saw me hiding from her, how pathetic is that?"

Nick rubbed his eyes. "Why'd you hide?"

Greg avoided to look at Nick, he was too ashamed. "I-I don't know."

"...So I was right earlier? You're scared?" Nick asked in a soft voice.

Greg faintly nodded. "I know nothing's going to happen. She's not a bad person. ...But I'm scared, either way. It doesn't make sense, but..."

As Nick watched Greg fight back tears filling up his eyes, he smiled at his friend. "Come on, don't beat yourself up over this. Don't think I don't have an ex I don't want to run across."

Greg chuckled as he wiped his eyes. "Yeah but this is different."

"In a way, maybe. But you know how it's the same? The feeling will eventually go away."

"I hope so. But I'll have to see her, I'll have to work with her. How can I trust her with my life when I'm scared she'll hurt me?"

"...Maybe you should talk to Russell and Brass..."

The younger CSI hastily shook his head. "No. No way. They can't find out."

"...Why not? If you'd have a conflict with any other cop you'd tell them."

"Nick, come on. It's embarrassing."

"No, it's not. They'll both understand."

Greg jumped off his seat. "Don't tell them." He had a distressed look on his face.

"...I won't." Nick got off his seat, too. "But I really hope **you** do soon. This will affect your work if you don't do anything about it."

"...I'll handle it."

* * *

Greg's interpretation of handling the situation drastically differed from Nick's. Instead of talking to Gretchen or Russell and Brass about it, he found ways to avoid Gretchen as good as possible for the next few days. But he wasn't as sneaky with this as he thought.

Russell asked him to come by his office before heading out to a crime scene. "You got the case on the Strip, right?" He asked as he closed the door to his office.

"...I do," Greg replied with a suspicious look on his face.

"Have a seat." Russell sat down himself.

Greg hesitated for a moment but then did, too. "...Am I in trouble or something?"

Russell smiled as he put his glasses down. "No. There's just a few things about your case I need to discuss with you." Russell started talking about some important details about the victim at the scene as well as the suspect. "And you'll be solo. But don't worry, officer Roth is already at the scene."

"...Alright," Greg said as he gulped. "Oh, that reminds me... I, uh... I wanted to check something on my last case, maybe Sara can take over this one?"

"Really? What is it you want to check?"

Greg was getting nervous. "...You know, some of the tests I... wanted to check again..."

"You'd rather spend a shift redoing some tests instead of facing your ex-girlfriend?"

Greg looked at Russell in shock. "...W-what?"

"Listen, I'm not stupid. I noticed you trying to avoid her. If this is affecting your work, then..."

Greg got off his seat in anger. "My private life is none of your business."

"...It is when it interferes with your work."

Greg walked over to Russell to grab the piece of paper with the informations about the case out of his hand. "See? It doesn't!" He turned around and put his now shaking hand on the door knob.

"Don't you trust me?" Russell asked in a concerned voice.

Greg turned around confused.

"Why didn't you come to me? We could've figured something out."

Greg remained at the door for a few moments before walking back to his seat and sitting down. He took another few moments before answering. "Because I didn't want you to think my private life would interfere with my work."

Russell smiled. "We're all human, it happens from time to time. There's no need to be ashamed."

Greg looked down on the floor as he nodded. He was ashamed.

"Give me that piece of paper back. I'll ask Sara to take the case."

"No, I can do it."

"I'd rather you didn't. I can't have you be distracted with a case like that. We'll work something out, alright? You won't have to work with her for as long as necessary, okay?"

Greg gave Russell a thankful – but also embarrassed - smile. He didn't know what to say, so he just got off his seat and left the office.


	6. Chapter 6

**Hey guys! We've already reached the last chapter!**

**Thank you for reading, reviewing, following and whatnot :) I hope you enjoyed this story, a new one's gonna be uploaded soon!**

**Thanks and Big Love,**

**pikapikatchu**

* * *

As the weeks passed, Greg was feeling more and more confident. He owed that both to the wonderful work of his therapist, Dr. Reyes and Russell being very supportive, making sure Greg didn't have to face Gretchen.

After a long, exhausting shift, Nick and Greg decided to grab a bite to eat before heading home. They went to try out a new diner near the lab, unaware of the fact that Gretchen was there, too. They sat down in a booth, talking about the case they just solved. It wasn't until after they ordered breakfast that Nick spotted the redheaded officer sitting in a booth on the other side of the diner. "Hey Greg... don't freak out, okay? Gretchen's here."

Greg looked around. "...She is?"

"Don't look!" Nick said before Greg turned around. "Let's just leave."

"Nick." Greg smiled at him. "It's alright. I've been meaning to talk to her, anyway. Maybe this is a good opportunity."

"...You do? You want to talk to her? Why?"

"Dr. Reyes says it's important to get closure, you know? I think I'm ready."

Nick looked at his friend impressed. "Are you sure?"

Greg nodded as he smiled. I'll be just a sec." He got off his seat, ready to walk over to his ex-girlfriend. He quickly sat back down as he noticed she was on a date with another police officer. "...Dammit, who's that guy?"

Nick looked over. "Oh, officer Burrell. He transferred from Reno about a month ago."

"I've never seen him before."

"Really? I've been working with him on almost all of my cases in the..." Nick stopped himself, but it was too late. Greg understood.

"He's been working with her together all the time, huh? I practically pushed her into his arms."

Nick looked a bit confused. "Are you jealous?"

"What? Me?" Greg laugehd mocking. "Of course not," he lied. "It's just awkward because I wanted to talk to her and..." He kept looking behind himself to watch her and Burrell. When they both got off their seats, he quickly turned back around, praying they wouldn't see him.

"Nick, Greg. Hey," she said as they walked up to the CSIs.

"...Hey," Greg said in a weird way.

"How have you been?" she asked, feeling quite awkward herself.

"G-great. ...you?"

She nodded. All four of them could feel the awkwardness. "...Alright, so... Have a good one," she said as she walked away.

Greg waited for her to walk out the door before releasing a big sigh. "Wow. Weird."

"...Are you alright?" Nick asked.

"Yeah yeah, I'm fine. It's just... I didn't expect it to feel so weird, you know? Seeing her with another man. I'm not jealous, but... I think I envy him."

Nick raised his eyebrows. "Envy him?"

"Well I'm sure it's quite uncomplicated between the two, don't you think?"

Now Nick sighed. "You gotta stop comparing yourself to others."

"I know... But it's hard not to, seeing them all happy and in love."

"You know, you should be proud. You just faced her and you did good."

"...You're right! I actually feel alright." Greg smiled. The first thing he did when he started the next shift was telling Russell about this. He was ready to face Gretchen again.

* * *

Three days later, Greg ran into Gretchen on his way to the police station.

"Hey Greg," she greeted him in a rather neutral tone.

"Gretchen, can we talk?" He didn't plan on doing this today, but Greg decided to use this opportunity to get his closure.

"Sure. How are you?"

He nodded. "I'm alright. I just wanted to..." He sighed. He had practiced this talk many times, but now was at a loss for words. "Despite how it ended, I really enjoyed the time spent with you."

She gently put her hand on his arm. "I did, too."

He was surprised at how well he handled her touch. "I really wish it didn't end like that, but I hope we can still be friendly with each other."

"Of course. Greg, you'll always have a place in my heart." She smiled at him. She proceeded to hug him. "I hope it was okay, seeing me and Adam the other day."

"...Adam? Oh, Burrell? Yeah. Yeah, sure. I'm happy for you."

She smiled at him. "Thank you. And I hope you'll find someone great soon, too. Actually... My friend Katy would be perfect for you. I could set you up and..."

Greg stopped her. "Thanks, but... I'm good."

"You sure? Well, just let me know if you change your mind, alright?"

Greg chuckled. "I will, thanks. Well, see you around."

They both went on about their business and Greg couldn't help but smile over the fact that he felt at peace with the thought of being single again. He would like to have a nice, uncomplicated relationship but realized forcing it wasn't the right way to deal with this. He was perfectly fine being alone. He knew it would only be a matter of time before he found another woman worth trying dating again.

* * *

Ende.


End file.
